Day 072 - 12 Jan 95 - Page 08

     
     1        Ms. Steel, on this point?
     2
     3   MS. STEEL:  Not at the moment.
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  In relation to the issue on these documents
     6        on the evidence as it stands at the moment.
     7
     8   MS. STEEL:   Not at present but Mr. Rampton speaks now, does he
     9        not, anyway?
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, but you only get an opportunity to
    12        reply; if you want to say anything in support of your claim
    13        to have them, I give you an opportunity to do that.  If
    14        Mr. Rampton raises an argument, then, since you are working
    15        in harness, I will give both you and Mr. Morris an
    16        opportunity to reply.  But, in the first instance, I am
    17        asking if there is anything you wish to say at this stage
    18        in support of your application to see blanked out parts of
    19        the documents.
    20
    MS. STEEL:  Basically, I support Dave's application.
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, I take it that you support what he says.
    24
    25   MS. STEEL:  I would just say I think it is quite plain that the
    26        documents do contain relevant material which would help
    27        either advance our case or damage the Plaintiffs' case.
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you want to give me an example of that?
    30
    31   MS. STEEL:  For example, there were sections that had been
    32        blanked out about the rubbish being left outside the
    33        restaurants.  We have seen from the diary that is a subject
    34        of complaints by the local residents and that is obviously
    35        something that they consider just as much of an eyesore as
    36        the environment/index.html">litter dropped by the customers themselves.  I would
    37        say, quite plainly, that that is relevant.  We would submit
    38        that the whole of the document is relevant.  It is all to
    39        do with the way in which McDonald's treat complaints made
    40        by members of public; whether they take them seriously or
         not or whether they just brush them off and do what they
    42        think they can get away with.
    43
    44   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I start from the position that
    45        I gratefully accept -- it saves me having to do the same
    46        thing -- the principles which your Lordship has formulated
    47        thus far.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have added one in the light of what
    50        Mr. Morris said about economy with the truth, because it 
    51        seems to me from what Lord Justice Dillon said, at least, 
    52        that the fact that blanked out parts of documents might 
    53        provide material for the cross-examination of McDonald's
    54        witnesses as to credit is not a legitimate ground for
    55        obtaining discovery, according to the Court of Appeal.
    56
    57   MR. RAMPTON:  Thorpe and the Chief Constable of Greater
    58        Manchester was a decision in the Court of Appeal.  I have
    59        not brought it to court but it has for long been a
    60        well-known principle that discovery is not available in